Chapter 4 #3
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t drive away. My hands were trembling so much that I couldn’t even get a firm grip on the key to try starting the car again. Oh god.
He stopped a few feet away from the car, and gestured at me, circling his wrist like he was trying to tell me… oh… open my window? Why was he doing that with his arm?
I lowered it a touch, glad the electric windows worked when the key was in the ignition like this.
“You okay, love? You lost?”
I gasped in response, because air wasn’t working for me.
“Do you need help?”
I shook my head, clutching at my throat like it’d let some air in and let me speak. He was too big, too wrapped in leather, and too close, even a car width away from me.
“Are you here to see someone in the club?”
I shook my head even more vehemently, and he tilted his head.
“Are you Elizabeth?” He asked suddenly, inexplicably, and I gasped, slapping a hand over my mouth. He knew me? Was he there? Was he one of them?
“I’m Micro, the new Club President, and this is Phoenix MC, Elizabeth. It’s a safe place now.”
He turned to the guy leaning on the gate again.
“Prospect, get Soph out here, and bring the little one with her.”
He turned and ran, and I watched the guy called Micro warily, as he stood quietly, his hands tucked in his pockets, like he knew I needed to know he wouldn’t try to touch me. He knew of me? How did he know?
A pretty woman with purple and blue hair appeared, a small bundle clutched to her chest. Oh wait, not a bundle. A baby. She was carrying a baby, and smiling, as she hurried over to the man who’d been speaking to me. This apparently new president.
“What’s up, babe?”
He gestured to me as she naturally turned to face me, because that’s what you do when there’s a car and a woman sitting in it.
“Hi. I’m Sophie, his old lady. You okay?”
I swallowed hard, trying to find words. Trying to find a way to say no, but go away. What I needed more than that was oxygen.
Micro whispered something in her ear and reached for the baby, tucking her safely against his chest as he kissed Sophie’s forehead, and walked further away, cooing at the baby, his baby.
Sophie came closer, bending a little to meet my eyes.
“This isn’t the same club you knew, Elizabeth. I promise you that nobody here would hurt a hair on your head. They’d actually throw themselves at danger to protect you.”
My fingers were still trembling terribly, but I reached for the lock button and unlocked the car, gesturing to the passenger seat.
It was risky to unlock the car here, but something about Sophie made me feel safe, and I didn’t want to talk through a window about things that could become private and personal.
“Thank you,” she said softly as she slid into the passenger seat, gently moving my handbag over to the central console.
“S… Sorry.”
She shook her head. “You have nothing to apologise for. I don’t know your business, but I suspect you had a problem with the old club who were here.
So did I. I was being forced to work for them, I was smacked around, and mistreated, and I was relieved as hell to see them get torn down by Micro and the Phoenix club. ”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “T… Torn down?”
She nodded, a suddenly savage grin on her face.
“All the bad ones are gone, not just gone… D.E.A.D. The ones who are left have had to prove they’re Phoenix material.
They have very strict rules of conduct, and when it comes to women?
If they’re not the protective kind, who’d step in to help any woman in distress? They’re out.”
I pressed my hands together in my lap, wishing they’d stop shaking. Wishing I could be stronger. She was their victim too, and look at her now, so strong and proud. Married to the new Club President, with a baby. She looked so happy and fulfilled.
She tutted softly. “Stop beating yourself up for being uneasy here. If I hadn’t seen the way things have changed, I wouldn’t have been here either.
Micro won’t let bad guys in. He kicked plenty out after the initial cull.
And look,” she gestured at the building site visible through the still-open gates, “the place was torn down, gutted, it’s rising from the ashes as we like to say.
You know, Phoenix MC, uh… anyway. It’s a fresh start. New people. Good people.”
“But… is he… is…” I couldn’t even say his name, let alone ask if he was here, but I’d seen him with other bikers, and he’d used this address, so if that wasn’t a taunt, was it because he was here too?
“If you knew someone in this club, and they weren’t a monster who had to be put down, they could still be here. They’re no threat to you.”
“E-easy for you to say.”
“Maybe, but if someone from this club bothers you, I need to know. I’ll take action if I have to. As the President’s old lady, I have some pull here too.”
President’s old lady? The words were jarring, because the former president, that monster, he wouldn’t have had just one woman as his. He wanted all of us. He especially wouldn’t have let one have any power.
“I promise you, this is a safe place for women now.”